An expedition of robots went to explore the planet Magellanx. Unfortunately,
they left little Trakers behind, and now he's got to find 10,000 credits to get
back to Earth. As soon as you play it, you'll realise that the game is based on
the Dizzy series, where objects can be collected and used to solve
puzzles. However, there are also lots of creatures to avoid, and some of them
are far too tricky. The graphics are nice and cute and the sound effects are OK,
but you'll become very frustrated at how quickly you lose your nine lives.

Have you ever wanted to get lost in a trance and achieve a comatose state?
Apparently, it can be achieved if you complete the six levels of this immensely
challenging puzzle game. You have to fit twelve pentagonal shapes on to a
sphere, and ensure that the numbers on each side of the pentagons match adjacent
numbers in some way. It's every bit as confusing as it sounds! A prize was
offered for the first person to complete this game, but I doubt if anyone ever
did! I'm going to lie down and recover now (and get away from all those puns on
the word 'trance')...

Billions of years in the future, the sun has turned into a red giant. The human
race established cities deep beneath the Earth's surface in order to survive.
Most of them were eventually sent to other solar systems, but you have returned
to Earth in your Transmuter spaceship to destroy the remaining defence systems.
This is a very poor space shoot-'em-up from Code Masters; frankly, it's one of
the worst games they released for the CPC, and I expected much better from them.
The graphics are ugly and have been taken straight from the Spectrum, and the
scrolling is appallingly jerky. The music is brilliant, though; it's the only
positive thing about this game.

Sumptuous-looking game from 8-bit programming legend Dave Perry, who was also
behind Beyond the Ice Palace and Savage. You are Trantor, the last
stormtrooper, who must escape from the alien planet that your starship crashed
on, killing all your comrades. Against the clock, you must shoot your way past
the inhabitant aliens in order to collect the various letters of the password
that are stored around the aliens' underground complex which will ultimately
allow you to escape, while collecting ammo, health and time bonuses along the
way. The graphics, gameplay and sound (including speech on the loading screen)
are all outstanding.

Your home planet is being attacked by an ally that was once peaceful. The
question is whether violent destruction can be justified in the name of peace.
This is a space shoot-'em-up with the addition that on each level, you must
shoot a certain number of aliens and laser barriers, and bomb a certain number
of boats before you can land your spaceship. You also have to replenish your
fuel very regularly indeed. Once you have landed, you walk along the surface
shooting monsters and collecting orbs which you can use on later levels to buy a
better spaceship. The graphics are fairly colourful, albeit a bit blocky, but
all the levels are exactly the same, and most players will switch off once
they've realised this.

Berk has to perform several tasks for 'him upstairs' by using the various bits
and bobs lying around the castle, as well as requiring the assistance of some of
the monsters lurking below the trapdoor. These tasks include preparing a can of
worms, followed by boiled slimies, eyeball crush and fried eggs – yum! You'll
need to watch out for the ghost who will scare you and take whatever you're
currently holding if you're not careful. This is a fun little game which is
geared towards children, although I'm sure the rest of you will also like it.
The graphics are quite blocky but are still colourful, but there's almost no
sound. Even so, the game really brings back memories of the children's TV
cartoon that it's based on.

Now you can find out what it's like to be a binman! As the binman, you must
collect all the bins from each street within a certain time. You can also chat
with some of the people living in the houses and get bonuses, but watch out for
cyclists and fast cars when you're crossing the road! The graphics might not
look appealing, but they are clear. There's no sound to speak of – white noise
when a car runs into you, and some extremely lame 'barking' noises – but it's a
humorous game, with a lot of awful Spectrum-related jokes.

The second of Dizzy's adventures sees him stranded on a treasure island. To get
off the island, he has to buy all the equipment for a boat, and collect thirty
coins. It's like all the other Dizzy adventures, really, but because the
programmers seemed to think that the first game was a little too easy, they
decided to give you only one life in this sequel. This ruins the game, as it can
be too easy to walk into one of the traps in the forest. It's also far too easy
to accidentally drop the snorkel while you're underwater, which of course makes
you drown instantly. However, the music is nice, and there's some digitised
speech after the game loads as well.

Redhan the brave knight has entered a very dark fortress in search of the three
Lights of Glaurung. These three jewels, when placed together, grant the owner
victory in any battle. Redhan is searching for these jewels to rid the land of
Taleria of foul creatures and dark magic. This is no easy task, as the fortress
is full of knights, spiders, witches, wizards and a dragon named Glaurung. In
this flip-screen platform game, you have a limited number of arrows to protect
yourself with – although more can be found inside chests. These may also hide a
random bonus or hindrance – such as transforming you into a pig! Overall, a
comfortable game with average visuals and effects that gets tricky in places.

Legend tells of a pirate called Ali Gator whose treasure lies in a castle. You
have gone to the castle to search for the treasure. It's a simple exploration
game where you wander around a maze of only 49 rooms, but there are many traps
to catch you out. The game is quite a departure for Lankhor, who specialised in
text adventures on the CPC – and they should have stuck to what they knew best.
It's written by Claude Le Moullec, who also wrote dozens of listings for French
magazines, and in fact, it was originally intended to be a listing as well – and
it shows. The graphics and sound effects are rather basic, and it's not very
enjoyable to play, especially since everything is laid out at random each time
you play.